Nintendo and Game Freak have announced during today's Pokémon Direct broadcast that they are launching Pokémon Bank, a cloud-based service which will allow players to upload their Pokémon online and retrieve them for use in later titles.

With previous game in the popular series, you'd spend a lot of time training up your Pokémon only to abandon them and start over when a new Pokémon title was released. With Pokémon Bank — a concept which Nintendo has been tinkering with for around five years — players will be able to preserve their characters for years to come. Up to 3,000 Pokémon can be stored using the service and a free trial period will be available when it eventually goes live.

The catch is that Pokémon Bank will require a yearly fee to use — an understandable move when you consider the maintenance costs involved, but rather cheeky when you look at how many mobile titles offer similar functionality for free and don't require you to purchase a full-price retail game. Still, it's an interesting idea and one that will no doubt please the vast majority of seasoned Pokémon fans, and according to regular Japanese broadcast translator @Cheesemeister3k it'll cost just 500 Yen a year in Japan, which is around $5 — naturally the price in the West could vary.

What are your thoughts on Pokémon Bank? Is this something that Nintendo should be charging for? Cast your vote in the poll below.

Do you think that Nintendo should charge a fee for using Pokémon Bank? (229 votes)

Yes - it's what I've wanted for years and will need a lot of work from Nintendo's perspective

39%

No - cloud-based services like this should be added value rather than fee-based

27%

I'm undecided on the matter - I'll wait and see before I commit to the service

26%

I don't mind either way, as I'm not really interested in Pokémon X & Y

From the web

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User Comments (118)

I don't see why people are griping, if this service is going to be going for a while, it's going to need something to keep it afloat, and since this is apparently just a YEARLY fee, they're not asking for much.

so basically if you loss your 3DS with a digital copy of pokemon X/Y you are screwed and need to buy the game again but if you paid a fee to Nintendo you can at least recover your Pokemon..... Brilliant

NO, I don't think Nintendo should be running this service at all, there are so many holes that I can shoot in this.

The free trial that they run will inexplicably lead to people's pokémon being held hostage, when the trial expires and they find themselves unable to withdraw pokémon without paying the fee. If you're a young kid with no means to pay online and your parents won't help you, you're stuffed.

Despite their intentions that Pokémon Bank will run for many generations to come, it is inevitable that online services do not run forever, Nintendo are already going to discontinue Pokémon Global Link for Generation 5 games in 2013.

On top of that this is a middle man, the 3DS is a more than capable system of storing pokémon on internal storage, either by use of an app that stores pokémon on the SD card, or from within Pokémon X/Y itself by expanding box space with the SD card.

I don't think Pokémon Bank is an acceptable solution at all, regardless of expenses.

Finally a way, to store these little buggers on something without a dying backup batteriy Does anyone have infos about special pokemon distributions via RL events ? Will this BS continue or is "catch em all" finally a thing again ?If these event things are gone or kapt at a minimum im in for X/Y, if not, ill probably pass again

Fantastic idea, I'd gladly pay a few bucks for the service. This sounds like a test case for bigger things via Cloud service for Nintendo too. Also sounds like one step closer to a broad account system where everything is tied together... finally.

As far as I can see, Nintendo isn't stopping you from moving your Pokémon from generation to generation, all it's doing is setting up something so you can dip into the Pokémon of each game instead of having to mass transport 500+ Pokémon each time a new game comes out. If you've invested in each game and have either a complete or almost complete Pokedex it could be worthwhile. I would imagine for Competition Battlers it would be useful.

If you just play the game for the story and to have an odd batle, it isn't for you so you don't have to worry about it.

If this is simply a "bank", i.e. cloud storage that you can get free from Microsoft, Google and about another dozen companies then I don't see the justification for a fee. Everybody and their mother would want to advertise on a Pokemon website so cost shouldn't be an issue. And the Pokemon Dream website has been free for years and that was a whole lot more than a bank.

We haven't been on it in awhile but Skylanders has a full blown gaming website that came free when you purchased any Skylanders game. You could type in codes or hook up your portal to your PC and get all your Sklyanders toys online and have them play a bunch of minigames and build houses and stuff. And it was all free.

@RupeeClock If we think about this service lasting several Pokemon generations and consoles this is a great idea as people are no longer forced to buy every generation to ensure that they can use their pokemon in a future game for example if I wanted to get Fire Red pokemon on Black or Black 2 I would need Diamond/Pearl and a DS with this system in place you want have to have every game or maybe even every handheld to access pokemon.

Hell yes Nintendo needs to be charging. People don't understand how much server space will be required as well as maintenance to keep this service up and running smoothly. And if it is $5 a year, well that is still a STEAL. I was expecting $10 or $15 and would be happy paying that. I wouldn't care if they decided to do a 100 free Pokemon Bank but for the 3,000... yes, they should be charging... Oh and not to mention that Nintendo will be responsible for your content, as these free cloud services are not. Spending 500 hours leveling several Pokemon would suck to lose compared to a few text documents that could be re-written in a fraction of the time.

This is probably a path to a cloud for your eShop downloads, but either way, they're on the right path having a cloud based Pokémon bank. Even though there is a fee, I think this will be heavily used by all those Pokémon Dana out there.

Then you're insane. $5/ year or whatever it is for ~20mb is a huge rip off.

Even going by other gaming comparisions, PS+ gives you a entire GB of storage for your save data, and just ignoring everything else you get from PS+ (such as you know, essentially free games and huge discounts) would mean they're charging around $1 for 20mb of storage, and that gives you complete storage for every game that ever releases on PS3/Vita, not just one single series.

@RupeeClock "On top of that this is a middle man, the 3DS is a more than capable system of storing pokémon on internal storage, either by use of an app that stores pokémon on the SD card, or from within Pokémon X/Y itself by expanding box space with the SD card."

This is my biggest problem with this announcement. The idea of using a box to store Pokemon and to handle transfers between games is brilliant and it is something I've wanted for a long time (I even mentioned the idea in the comments section of an article here some time ago). That said, why does it need to go to an online server? Why not just let us store our pokemon on the SD card? Wouldn't that make more sense on a portable system where you may not always have internet access? I think the general concept is great, but it being online feels unnecessary.

First off the people saying other services are free are lying out their teeth. Nothing in life is free and I guarantee you, you are paying for the service somewhere. It may not be explicitly stated, but the money is coming from you somehow. I don't really see an issue with the service tbh.

For me I'd probably use it during the free trial to transfer over the 400+ Pokemon sitting in my box on White and White 2, then never use it again.

No way I'm paying for this. It's not a matter of value, but a matter of principles. I simply think there's no need for you to be charged for such a service. It didn't even need to be a cloud-based service, truth be told.

Frankly, this is something I'd expect of Microsoft, not Nintendo.

Still getting the game and playing the hell out of it, obviously. Hopefully the in-game storage space isn't too diminutive.

Nintendo is like the only game-developer+publisher nowadays that sells you FULL games...

take EA for example.. or any other game developer.... they announce DLC before the game even has a release date... they sell you 50-60% of the game for the full price..

they use microtransactions + maybe a subscription fee

basically.. you can't experience the full game without continuously paying for it, again and again..

with nintendo? i pay once and get to experience 100% of the game...very rarely do they introduce DLC, etc. - and Nintendo's DLC is fair

now i have to pay like 5euros/year for a feature that you don't necessarily need?yea.. let's rage about it on the internet... who could possibly pay such a huge amount (0,42) each month for such a service, that's so unfair of nintendo

@SphericalCrusher“20MB wouldn't even hold the visuals for 3000 Pokemon in X and Y”Are you insane? It probably isn't enough, but save data shouldn't contain the visuals for the pokemon! And even if they did, it could (should) be reduced to the number of different visuals, and shared across users!

@SphericalCrusher Sorry, but storing the visuals would make no sense (and it would be 1.7GB total max, as it supposedly is the size of X & Y).Let me explain. You are not storing the game, but save data. Which is useless without a Pokémon game (or application, such as the Pokémon Bank app), which already contains the models. Furthermore, visuals will probably not stay unchanged in the next (after X & Y) pokémon games, and the stored visuals would be useless.If the company you work for really do this kind of stuff, please tell its name, so that I can make sure not having business with them.

All of you complainers be quiet already. No one is making you use this service. And cloud storage is not really free people. It costs Nintendo money to get it all set up and you are all balking at paying for a yearly fee, shame on you. Nintendo could charge you monthly but they aren't. I like this idea. I hate the Poke transfer tool in the games. But they are still having the Poke transfer in the game so stop with all the hate. If you don't like this idea, then you don't have to use it.

All that is possibly unique about a pokemon is all that would need to be stored.
That is, IVs, EVs, Trainer ID, pokemon nickname, location of capture, gender, moves, nature, so on.

Case in point : if you go to any of the pokemon generation websites (that allow you to copy everything important about a pokemnon and troublingly, can actually be compatiable with the DS games if you're playing roms) only take up 136 BYTES for a single pokemon, storing everything unique about it.

Just in case you're not aware, 136 bytes is 0.0001297 of a megabyte. For a single pokemon. So about 0.4megabytes for 3000 pokemon. Even being generous like I was earlier and saying 20mb was apparently an overshoot. Of course, you have to allow that there might be some new variables added to X/Y that we aren't yet aware of, so it might be a tiny little bit bigger. It's still a negligiblely small size.

It's not 1.7GB of space to save. It's 1.7GB for EVERYTHING IN THE GAME, including all music, models and everything, none of which would ever be uploaded.

@SphericalCrusher The 1.7GB has only to be stored once. You don't store a copy of the game for each client, since it's byte-to-byte identical. You store it once, like on the eShop. Storage costs are close to zero. Well, not really, since there's potentially a lot of customers. But they are also a lot to have bought the game, which is money for Nintendo. Storing locally for each player would cost absolutely nothing.

I'm not big into Pokemon, it came after my time ( I think it was 21 when it first came out, so it was pretty kiddy for me), but one thing you can't accuse Nintendo of, and that is you cannot claim they don't know how to make bank.

If Pokemon is as big as people on here and elsewhere around the web claim Pokemon is (My kid brother who is now 18 says he will buy Wii U just for a full HD Pokemon game) This product is going to make Nintendo some serious bank, pardon the pun.

20MB costs nothing to store. 20MB times millions of customers do cost quite a bit. I acknowledge I phrased it quite poorly. But the point was, if you take into account that those millions of customers did pay the game... well... I think it doesn't cost quite a lot...

And yes, I did make a Nintendo Life account 40 minutes ago. Not to troll, but to react at what nonsense you've talked about. Storing visuals makes absolutely no sense.

We've already been through this. You're not getting "1-2GB of cloud storage". You're getting like, a few megabytes at most. Do you have any idea just how many variables you can store in a 1-2 gb file? Don't answer, as you obviously do not. Because it's in the MILLIONS at the very minimum, not thousands. A single pokemon takes up no more than a few kb unless the company is hilariously terrible at programming.

@Linkstrikesback There is more to it then just space requirements. Its upkeep on the massive databse that is going to keep track of which pokemon belong to which account when you are dealing with 15+ million customers, that is one MASSIVE database.

As someone who worked in IT for over a decade now, DBA's have to constantly monitor, patch, test, repeat over and over and over again. I had a tiny SNORT database that captured all attempts at hacking our network in a database, it was only a few gb's, but the requirements on upkeep up of keeping it running up to speed was enormous.... but it was a MySQL database, perhaps something to do with it.

@BlatantlyHeroic Well, the $15 gives you new content every month or so with MMOs. If this fee is the only way to transfer out of Black and White, then yes I feel soooooo lucky it's only $15 for a feature that has been free with every other generation.

@element187 Thank you. I agree, the size of each Pokemon will be tiny. But once you multiply that by 3000, times, let's say several million... doggiedoodlepoopoo adds up. And no, it's not free to give everyone, given everything. Bandwidth will be an issue as well. Plus, the guaranteed back-up and protection of my data. What I meant by saying they store visuals, is mostly related to the different moves per Pokemon (Which I know the game stores, not the server), but was referring more to a "looks" system (not stored per user) kind of like a saved-website does, where it drops graphics (Also small in size) in a separate folder. I am all for Nintendo charging for this, as they SHOULD. Just not more than this please. It's going to cost Nintendo money to run Poke Bank, therefore they want to charge the users for it. And they are being very fair.

@Linkstrikesback When I originally thought of going from BW to XY, I was thinking of this type of service, but also the SD card method. Exporting them to SD card and importing them back into XY but I feel that would leave too many open loop holes. Then there's considering somehow transferring it over home wifi or Nintendo Direct (One time transfer of several Pokemon maybe). Nonetheless, they settled on this and I'm happy to have a place to put all of my Pokemon. It would be kick donkey if I could use the wifi adapter on GBA to back THOSE Pokemon up, as well as other DS titles.

@Linkstrikesback No one knows how much space they are going to give out, but I'm going to guess 50-100MB (It's more than needed for 3K tiny Pokemon, but necessary if they decide to do more things with Poke Bank in the future, without having to expand everyone's partition, etc). Now, that will add up big time for everyone. I agree, Nintendo will make a ton more money than they are paying on this, but that's business. And again, to guarantee my data, and to protect my 1K Pokemon at the time, I'm sold.

Also, I would be okay if they decided to charge $5 or $10 for 1 or 2 years worth of Poke Bank service with the cost of the game. Not much difference in buying there or buying later though. Thankfully it's an annual, not monthly fee.

I'm not sure about it. The idea of storage sounds nice. But why does it have to be online? A local storage would be better in my opinion. I would even pay more for that option. Will they delete your pokemon, if you don't pay a second fee?

I have no issue with them having a subscription based cloud service for storing Pokemon, although I still think it would have been more effective to just store them on the SD card. The reason I say that is that, to my knowledge, they haven't said anything about being able to access your pokemon from a different system. I would assume it probably follows the same setup as the 3DS eShop does, in that it is tied to your console and not a login id. This will be fine (although still not ideal) if you upgrade system and do the system transfer, but if your system is lost or stolen, my assumption is that, just like your eShop data, you loose access to your pokemon. If that is the case, what is the point? If I'm going to loose access to them if my system gets stolen either way, why not just have a more hassle free SD card storage system that I can use regardless of whether I have internet access? I realize that this is just conjecture until Nintendo confirms how the system will work, but based on the way the 3DS' current systems function, I feel my reasoning is sound.

That said, what is really annoying me is that I'll have to use the bank to transfer my old pokemon to the new games.

@Romeo The funnier thing is.. when you consider a lot of people are paying/going to be paying 50- 60 bucks a month just to have access to updates and DLC.. that they spend even more money on.. while Nintendo does not charge them anything for that service... but Nintendo comes up with a cloudbank and charges 5 dollars a year.. and OMG... okay maybe they shouldn't but I don't see it as any worse than what the others are doing.. at least with Nintendo.. is making this optional... now if they come up with a future Pokemon.. where you start out with nothing and you absolutely have to have this bank to have any pokemon and play it.. then yes.. I can see the anger.. there is nothing that says without this bank that you can't just port from game to game... in the future.. I think this is more for people who may trade in their Mon games for new ones.. (as thus losing all the mon from previous) or for people who somehow manage to lose their games or something.. it may not be the best.. but it is a decent plan.. I am not sure yet... but I would think this could potentially be a nice option for some.. and 5 bucks a year is not bad really.. and.. like I said.. it's up to you if you want it or not..

@RupeeClock $5 a year is much cheaper than a second 3DS to trade between (or import to) X and Y for anyone who buys both.
If you can transport your Pokemon to virtually any new Pokemon game in any series, then it will be a very popular service.
I can't imagine Nintendo holding anyone's Pokemon hostage - I assume they would return all Pokemon if you cancel the service.

@SphericalCrusher, Anyway, I'm not saying that they shouldn't charge money for such a service, nor that $5/year is too expensive (although I do think it's overpriced), I was only reacting to your “20MB not enough for the visuals” assertion.

However, I trust my own backup/storage capacity more than some third party's service which might get discontinued earlier than I wish, and I absolutely hate the need to use such a thing to transfer from Black & White. I hope there is another way, like directly from the game.

@Aryon Yeah man, I totally messed that up. Obviously data is not visual, I was thinking more on terms of how you store a website, you store text and visual elements. The game would have this built in anyway. I was mainly just trying to say that they would give away more space than should (for allocation purposes) just in case of Poke Bank being used for something else, for stability purposes, etc. Took me too long to make that point, but hey, the Direct was 7AM after all! Haha

And I definitely trust myself more than others for storage, as I am anal about backup on my home gaming server I run as well as at work. But I do like the fact that I can store all of my Pokemon in the cloud, in case of theft or data loss on DS cards (Case in point, my wife's 3DS XL was stolen recently and all of her Animal Crossing data gone). Wish more games on 3DS used cloud saves (Hell, maybe they will eventually let us upload the actual game save for XY to cloud for back-up. Wouldn't take much more.

A paid eShop download with no fees seems more reasonable to me, but I don't catch that many Pokémon and I prefer to leave them on their original catridge/card, so since I dont think Im likely to need that service ever I don't care that much .

using the cloud is a bril idea but i have one major issue with it i completely missed out the black/white games so all my pokemon are on a pkm Pearl cart, if they can read save data from b&w why not from diamond, pearl & platinum

If Japan is paying 500 yen, then I'm paying for this! It's dead cheap and reliable for someone like me who has tons of IV trained and breed Pokemon that I give to people that need them. I even occasionally breed for shinies too so this will help to deposit them, regardless of when I have internet connection.

I wasn't too thrilled about paying for this service at first, but think about it. Nintendo had Pokemon box & ranch to store Pokemon, and those discs probably cost $30 to $40 each, but people bought it with no complaints. Also- remember that the price doesn't cover space exclusively, but server space as well.If price is your concern, then this bank thing isn't that big of a deal, as it would take 5-7 years before you spent as much as you had on the other storage options. I still don't know if I'll use the service, but I think it's a cool option, especially for people who want to start a new game.

500 yen a year is REALLY good, especially considering most people who play Pokemon tend to buy future installments. There's still some questions, though; what happens when you cancel your service? Do you lose your Pokemon, are they trapped in the cloud until you use it again or something different? It'd be great if you could use the service to create savegame-backups, as long as methods to prevent savescumming will be implemented.

I have no problem with this, because a) it's only $5 a year, and b) the game is completely playable without it. Really, if you play Pokemon as much as some of the real fanatics do, you could pay a good bit more than $5 a year and it would still be worth it.

As a long time Nintendo fan and Pokémon player I have to say I don't mind at all that they charge for this - not at all!

The years of enjoyment I've gotten out of all their games for a one-time purchase price each time can't be repayed with $5 a year so I think it's only fair. If they were going up too much I probably wouldn't be happy (or if they started giving large advantages to people for bigger sums) but for something that I think most of us really can afford it only seems fair to pay a little for a not necessary but nice additional feature.

Especially with game piracy going up (which I also understand from both sides really...) I'd rather they charge us a bit here and there for the stuff we really love and want than to see the franchise suffer.

@gamingreal I understand where you're coming from but I've been saying this since Pokémon Red on my Gameboy Color became outdated. That was the game I loved and the Pokemon I like most and they're fatally forever left behind on my damn Gameboy. C'est la Pokémon vie.

Although there is already another article on this, nobody has an issue with Pokemon Bank having a yearly fee, people have an issue with the transfer system forcing you to use Pokemon Bank, and thus potentially forcing you to PAY the fee for a cloud system you didn't want to use, and will not use, because you wanted to transfer Pokemon from past games, which should not require use of Nintendo's servers. They purposely made it require the use of their servers so they could charge you, charge you for a service you will likely not even use.

I wouldn't have that much of a problem with this...except from what I can tell, this is the ONLY way to transfer Pokemon between games. Nintendo is taking functionality that was available freely in previous games and making you pay for it. And that will always be bullsh!t.

@Happy_Mask"I'm also getting the feeling that they'll make the box sizes crappy, to further push the use of this service."

I'm hoping GameFreak isn't that greedy, if they really do reduce the number of ingame boxes to force people to use the Bank, then the outrage we're seeing now would be nothing compared to the storm that would cause...

@Ecto-1 I think it will use NID or whatever account system that let you be able to recover your Pokémon even you lost your 3DS system. An information that seems not be available to NA/EU is that the release date for Pokémon bank (at least) in Japan is 12/25/2013. Why it's so late? The only reason I can imagine is that they are waiting for NID on 3DS.Also, even if you use SD card, the data is encrypted by the 3DS system. You can't use any data on that card with another 3DS system. So if you lost your 3DS, you still can't recover it.What's more, another reason that I think they don't what to use SD card is because that means it will be easier for crackers to duplicate or create Pokémon, and also that they need to use a stronger way to encrypt the data, that you can't recover anything if your SD card broken. Take animal crossing new leaf for example, you can't backup your save file on SD card, because the system track the latest save file, and if you restore your save file from a backup, that one is not the latest, and the game will refuse to load it. I assume the same thing will happened for Pokémon, which means SD is not a secure place for storage at all.

@shinpichu You can use the free trial period to transfer your BW/B2W2 Pokémons. However, it's possible that there will be no more free trial when Z, or 7th gen release, but who know what will happen at that time.

I was going to buy Pokemon and try it for the first time ever. Not now that they are going to charge me to basically save my game to a cloud server. I bet the game will only allow you to save so many then force you to pay to save the rest to enjoy this. Really charging to save your game? I could understand if the game had online co-op or they charged for even online tournaments but to save your game. REALLY! Nintendo has lost their ever lovin minds! Was buying but not now.

@shinpichu is the game cart only going to allow so many Pokemon? How many Pokemon will the cartridge allow? If its a considerable number it probably won't bother me. At best I will only be a casual Pokemon player anyway. But would love to at least be able to store say 200 Pokemon on my cartridge. That's not knowing a thing about Pokemon other than its very popular.

I still feel though this is a basic save feature that Nintendo is going try and Nickle and dime people for after shelling out 39.99 for the game. 90% of MMORPG's give you the software for free then charge monthly. DLC charges are even rediculous that Nintendo are Nickle and diming already. 49.99 I payed for Shin Megami Tense IV the 1.50 on average for DLC quests is rediculous. They are getting very greedy boys. That's all I'm saying. Same goes for Fire Emblem. Both Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei IV are great games, but the DLC prices are ridiculous after they add up when paying 39.99 and 49.99 for the games. Now the 30.00 dollar credit was nice in the Eshop and very generous to say the least but they won't do that again. Mark my words on that. People who get those games this Christmas as gifts won't be getting the 30 dollar eshop credit to offset the DLC charges

@shinpichu let's hope not. If I can save say 200 Pokemon I will still get the game cause it looks awesome. If it comes out that you can only store like 6 Pokemon on your game I think this place and the internet will not be happy

The way I see it, it's an OPTIONAL service, not necessary to play any Pokémon game. Sony and MS both charge more than $5 per MONTH if you want to use their cloud service (granted, you get other benefits as well, but still). For $5 a YEAR, who can complain? Seriously? $25 would cover you for an entire console generation.

@windy I really doubt that they'll limit the amount of pokemon you can store to anything under the number of pokemon that are available throughout the entirety of the series. (actually they'll probably still include a little more room than necessary for every pokemon) this really shouldn't be a concern. the bank (as far as I can tell) is just for people who are extremely into pokemon and wish to carry their collections over from gen 5 to gen 6 and eventually (from what Nintendo seems to be claiming) to any generations that go past 6. so don't worry, your more than likely gona be able to store all 700+ (im guessing that number mind you) or so pokemon on your cartridge.

I can't vote yes on that poll, that reason is stupid. why would any ever have wanted nintendo to charge online things? the reason I say yes is because thats INSANELY cheap, like, you could pay that with pennies you find on the ground in a year, AND they deserve some support

@NINTendosucks Hmm, well Mr Person, I believe in them to honor the terms of their subscription. I won't cheat to get banned and thats the whole point of them charging, is for security. I have not played Poke TCGO as much as I 'd like but I will take that into consideration.

@SphericalCrusher Database wouldn't be storing any art, that will all be done in game... what will go into the database is probably all text data taht user xyz has pokemon abc, and its level X with abilities Y.

and when that user pull his pokemon, that text data gets pulled down to his local machine, the game reads that data assigns the proper pokemon, level, abilities etc (I never played a pokemon game, but as working in IT my whole life, thats what companies would do to save as much space as possible.)

How far into the game do you have to get to access the bank? This would be useful if you like having all three starters or want to build a team of stored Pokes from level 1.

Is the bank tied to the copy of the game and Trainer ID that accesses it, like Pokemon Box was, or is it passworded or console ID linked, or something? This is important because, in the absence of New Game+, I'd like to be able to drop the Pokemon I catch into the Bank, then gather a new team from it for subsequent playthroughs.

Can you keep items? Again, multiple playthroughs, plus unique things like the creation trio orbs, Blazikenite from the event, unique evolution items, and the like.

I rather like the fact that I will not need a second 3DS and game copy to keep my collection. Given that that was the only way to do it in previous generations, $5/yr seems a bargain.

uh apparently it is $5 annual fee at least it isn't that dear but the thing is would i be able to pay with an e-shop card im not to sure if not i will just have to put my credit card in, i hope i can pay with an e-shop card

the emulator that DS games run in cannot talk with the 3ds software. the reason the import worked from DPP/HG&SS/BW&BW2 was because they where all DS games. Its a console limit. At least they provide the path unlike a lot of other manufactures. This is an optional service and I doubt they will reduce the number of pokemon the card can handle, they are probably going to increase the number now that there will be more pokemon. In the ND they made it clear that the bank will be there if your game is lost or stolen. Yes, the game save data would be awesome. In regards to the cost, "Free" online usually means ads or they are selling info about your to pay for the service. Who would buy a list of most commonly stored pokemon?

I am hoping there will be a web interface where I can see what I have in the bank and decide what I want to pull into the game without having to use the tiny screen of the 3ds, maybe tied into the dream world.

As consoles change backwards compatibility is only some feasible. Want new features? You will loose access to existing data. Game freak has worked hard to maintain the ability to keep older pokemon, even releasing remakes. At least they try unlike most.

Seems like a scam... Idk but its cool that its going to be free for a while it just sounds like there going to ask for a cred number for the trial, then a long process to get out of the renewal.... So I vote nooo charging us. Stick to your guns spoiled kidos you'll learn the value of a dollar one day, just saying 5 dollars can go a long way sometimes.

There also is a point to all this, most of us disagree with this for the fact that there has never been a charge until now, not all of us get to spend parents hard earned money on what we want. It makes no since.. Why try and fix something that's not broken? You know this all seems a lil too familar, rockstar also got a lil greedy and upon releasing stuff, well lets just say a lot of people were not happy, and people lost money and saved files.